


Sabbatical

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Series: Life Less Ordinary [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Amnesia, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Shiro (Voltron), Gen, Mind Control, do i have to tag major character death if it's zarkon, maybe a little bloodier but really there's not that much, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 00:44:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11909685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: There are a few moments of clarity in the hell Shiro lives, but not many.





	Sabbatical

**Author's Note:**

> from this ask on tumblr: hey i really like your voltron superhero au on ao3!! i just finished the last story and will we ever get to know what happened to shiro on that "sabbatical" of his and his battle with the emperor?
> 
> thanks to whoever sent it in!! <3 i had fun writing this while waiting to post my sheith bb ahaha
> 
> anyway since this is about shiros time as champion, its more or less concurrent with Close Encounters (of the Villainous Kind). in case it isnt obvious, the emperor is zarkon and the witch is haggar. aaand matt never explains his power (and may never do so) so ill just tell you he can undo the effects of other ppls powers, except he cant undo physical damage so its rlly not as cool as it sounds lmao. ok enjoy!

There are a few moments of clarity in the hell Shiro lives, but not many.

Those moments stick in his mind when the rest of his experience is a clouded haze. People in colorful costumes, chained in a row in a damp, dark warehouse; a man in blue on a rooftop, who meets his eyes, face stricken with terror; standing at attention with the other bodyguards while The Witch advises The Emperor in front of them. Begging the department head at the college for a medical leave, early on.

He knows he was given a year off, somehow. He can’t quite register the passage of time, but that was summer and now it’s winter, so it’s been months, at least.

He rarely has the presence of mind to worry about that.

The next time he starts to surface, though, he’s aware of it, which is already more than usual.

“You with me yet?” a voice rasps through the thinning haze, before he has quite registered his surroundings. It comes from a man he’s pinning to the wall by the throat.

He steps back quickly and the man slides to the ground, rubbing his throat. Shiro blinks a couple times, shaking his head to try to clear the last of the fog.

“Nng,” is the first thing he manages to say. “What…?”

“Easy,” the man coughs. “He really had his claws in deep.”

The cadence and tone of the voice is familiar, despite the rasp. Shiro squints at him; his hair is longer than when they were in college together, and his face is in shadow, but…

“Matt?” he asks.

Matt looks up and gives him a haggard grin. “The one and only.”

“What… how?” Shiro looks around; they’re in a makeshift cell in the warehouse. The Emperor’s headquarters. It’s quiet, right now, but he can’t quite remember who’s here or out…

“I’m guessing you’re not here by choice,” Matt groans, dragging himself back up to standing. “Obviously I’m not, either. I don’t know how you got yourself into this mess, though.”

Shiro rubs his forehead. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re The Emperor’s right-hand man, buddy. Feared throughout the city. Outside it, too.”

“I…” That can’t be right, can it? He’s vaguely aware he’s a  _bodyguard,_  and he knows he’s under The Emperor’s control. He doesn’t remember doing anything more than standing around, though. He rubs his forehead again. “How did we get here? Now?”

“Oh, I got caught doing reconnaissance and got dragged in here. You were guarding me so I goaded you into getting closer so I could–” He snaps his fingers. “Snap you out of it.”

“Sorry…. about that…. How…?”

“I’m a super too. Usually a pretty useless one, though. No fireworks.” Matt puts his hands on his hips. “Anyway, the primary goal here is getting  _me_  out, but stealing you away would be a big blow. You in?”

It still takes a moment for Shiro to process that. “You… want to escape.”

“No, I want to rot in a corner of an abandoned warehouse forever.” Matt gives him a look.

“Okay,” Shiro says slowly. “Okay.” He turns and looks out of the cell; the cavernous space beyond is mostly in shadow, and the light that seeps in through the cracks is orange. Evening, maybe.

There’s no telling who could be watching them.

“Do you have a plan?” he asks.

“Do you know your way around?” Matt returns.

Shiro squints into the darkness. “Maybe? It’s all pretty fuzzy.” With any luck he’ll have… muscle memory, or something subconscious, to guide him in the right direction.

“Well, I’m hoping that if you lead me like I’m still a prisoner and you’re taking me somewhere, we’ll be able to just walk right out.”

Shiro can’t help but make a face as he turns back to Matt. “You… really think that’ll work?”

“Well we gotta try something, and the big bads aren’t here, so it’s now or never.” Matt steps up beside him and folds his hands behind his back. “Here.”

Shiro takes a deep breath and gently grips Matt’s wrists. “Alright. Let’s go.”

They walk out of the cell, footsteps echoing on the concrete. A distant pair of glowing yellow eyes follows their progress from the shadows, but no one stops them on their way to the door. He has no trouble finding the way, but then, there’s not much here to navigate.

And then Shiro shoves his shoulder into the door to open it and standing on the other side are two figures, silhouetted by the setting sun.

“Hm,” says The Emperor, and he lifts a hand.

* * *

When next Shiro comes to, he’s being restrained–held down against the floor, in fact, the taste of blood and dirt in his mouth and a sharp pain across his face. There’s muted shouting, roaring, the crack and rumble and hair-raising  _fizz_  of a battle between supers nearby. A hand lifts from his cheek.

“He’s coming to now.” Matt’s voice sounds distant.

“Are you sure?” This voice Shiro doesn’t recognize, but it can only come from the man sitting on his back right now.

“Yeah, look at his eyes. Shiro?”

Shiro groans.

“Well, he’s responsive. Let him up.”

The pressure lifts, but Shiro doesn’t move right away. His senses still feel muffled and he aches all over; soon, though, the crackling atmosphere of the nearby battle forces him up to his hands and knees.

“You can go help, Ulaz, I’ll stay with him,” Matt says. Ulaz doesn’t respond aloud but Shiro hears him get up and jog away.

Shiro rolls over to sit properly, and then he can see the rest of the warehouse.

The whole place is lit up from the glow of The Witch’s powers and the flash of various others. There’s a lot of people he doesn’t recognize, a lot of bodyguards he only kind of does; The Emperor and The Witch are in the thick of it, fighting back whatever force came for them–and winning, it seems, though not by much. Then Matt waves a hand in his face.

“Stay with me, buddy,” he says. “I don’t have the energy to keep dragging you back out of there.”

Shiro turns to look at him, to ask for context, and does a double-take. Matt’s face and hands are absolutely covered in scrapes and developing bruises, and his shirt is torn–one cheek is red and puffy, probably soon to develop into a black eye. His hands are smeared with blood.

“What happened?” Shiro breathes.

Matt gives him a small, sad smile. “You should see the other guy,” he says.

Shiro blinks at him. He doesn’t remember, but he’s got an unsettling feeling the “other guy” is himself.

He looks back to the battle, mindlessly wiping at the dirt on his face with the back of his hand, only to find blood instead. He stares at it a moment before Matt gently pushes his hand back down.

“This superhero group infiltrated this place,” Matt finally explains. “They’re trying to take The Emperor down. You’re still gonna be susceptible to his control, though, so we should get going while they’re distracted.”

“…We didn’t escape.”

Matt snorts. “Nope.”

“How long has it been?”

“Dunno. An hour, maybe.”

Their attempt must’ve kicked this off, then, Shiro realizes. Apparently to its detriment–there are a few prone forms strewn about the warehouse floor and none of them are in the black and red and purple that The Emperor favors.

“We should help,” he says.

“No. No way.” Matt grabs his chin and turns his face so Shiro has to look at him. “I’m in no shape to fight and neither are you. I  _can’t_  fight. You go in there, he’ll just pull you under again, and I’m not keen on giving him  _more_  help.”

Shiro grimaces, then winces as it pulls at whatever injury is on his face. “But…”

“ _No._  Trust me.” Matt grips his wrist. “You trust me, right? It’s been a while since college but we’re still friends, right?”

Shiro looks at his face, determined beneath the dirt, and relents. “Yeah, we’re friends. I trust you.”

“Okay, so, if The Emperor gets anywhere near you, don’t listen to him, don’t even look at him, just punch him as hard as you can and run. Got it?”

“Punch him and run. Got it.” The haze is mostly gone but Shiro isn’t sure he can trust himself right now–so trusting Matt will have to do.

Matt gets up, and tugs at Shiro; he stands, too, albeit a little shakily. And then they’re off, heading toward the door again, albeit with a much different kind of caution.

Matt takes the lead at a jog; they keep to the shadows as much as possible but the fight casts light into every corner. If they can’t go unnoticed, then maybe they simply won’t be worth the trouble, or so Shiro hopes. He keeps half an eye on the fight beside them as they skirt the wall.

There’s a screech, and someone comes flying toward them, hitting the wall just ahead. Shiro hesitates so Matt grabs his sleeves and pulls him on, hopping over the super’s legs as she groans.

“Keep moving!” he hisses. Shiro spares the fallen woman a glance, and then follows Matt, though something drops in his gut. Like he’s betraying himself.

“Almost there,” Matt mutters, and Shiro looks aside to the battle again.

The Emperor, far across the room, still in the middle of battle, meets his eye.

Shiro snaps his gaze away, throat tight. He pushes forward and almost trips up Matt on the way.

“ _He saw me_ ,” he pants.

“Shit,” Matt says, and they start running. There’s a whoosh and a crackling, and then a  _boom_  that rattles Shiro’s very bones and seems to shake the ground beneath their very feet, sending them both toppling.

When Shiro scrambles back up to his feet, The Emperor is there. He lifts a hand.

_“Kill the prisoner,” he says._

_Champion turns to kill the prisoner. Reaches down. Lifts him up by the throat._

_“Shiro,” the prisoner wheezes. “Friends… remember?”_

_The prisoner is his friend? The prisoner is his friend. There’s something he’s supposed to remember. Something he’s supposed to do._

_The prisoner bumps his fist against Champion’s–Shiro’s–forearm. It’s not nearly hard enough to even bruise. The prisoner whistles as he breathes._

_Fist. Punch._

_Punch him and run, that was it._

_Shiro drops the prisoner, turns, and punches The Emperor in the face._

_Something in his mind suddenly goes slack._

Shiro comes to to find blood on his fist, The Emperor and Matt both crumpled at his feet, and only the vaguest memory of how he got here. He unclenches his hand, looking at his bloodied knuckles, and he can’t tell if it’s easier to breathe now or just the opposite.

The Emperor isn’t moving.

Matt, however, is gasping for breath as he stumbles back up to his feet. He steadies himself with a hand on Shiro’s elbow and points to the fray.

“Look,” he says.

Shiro looks. The fray doesn’t really qualify as such anymore–many of the combatants have frozen, looking down or around in confusion. The rest, those in brighter colors, are converging on the main source of light in the warehouse right now.

The Witch wails, and it turns into a shriek.

“We’re going  _now_ ,” Matt says, and then Shiro is being pulled into a run again with only the faintest inkling starting to penetrate his mind that he just killed The Emperor.

They burst out into the cold, snowy air, and Shiro breathes in like he’s never breathed before.

“It’s over,” he gasps, because it hits him: he’s  _free._

“No it isn’t,” Matt says, though, and keeps pulling him along the snowy wharf, back to solid ground. “The Witch is still in there, and she’s pissed.”

“But The Emperor is dead,” Shiro hears himself say.

“Yeah.” Matt snorts. “You punched his face in. He’s dead.”

“He’s dead,” Shiro repeats.

“Okay, you’re definitely in shock. Remember to breathe, Shiro, but we gotta get out of here.”

Shiro breathes.

He knows when the ambulances show up, along with the special police unit. It’s hazy but it’s a different kind of haze. Temporary. He hears Matt explaining what happened, and someone wraps him in a shock blanket and then he’s bundled into an ambulance.

The Emperor is dead.

Shiro turns to Matt, who’s tucked onto the bench next to him in a matching blanket.

“He’s dead?” he asks once more, just to be sure. Someone murmurs nearby but he focuses on Matt. Matt is his friend, and he can trust him.

“Yeah, Shiro,” Matt says tiredly. “He’s definitely dead.”

* * *

In the end, it turns out that Shiro can’t be held accountable for the things he did under mind control. Nor does anyone seem keen on punishing him for killing The Emperor.

So, after three days in the hospital for minor injuries and probably-rather-less-minor trauma, he’s sent back out into the world a free man.

It’s a little strange.

He gets back to his apartment–which is still his, and he sends a fervent  _thank you_  to whatever god might be listening for automated payments–to find it dusty but untouched. His blinking answering machine is the only movement, the only light but for the gray daylight peeking through the blinds.

Ugh, he has to  _clean_  now.

No sooner does the thought cross his mind than there’s a knock at the door. He reaches for the doorknob… and then thinks better of it, and peers through the peephole instead.

Matt’s on the other side. He opens the door.

“Recovering well, I see,” Matt says, before pushing into the apartment. Shiro fingers the bandage over his nose–that, and his newly-white bangs, are going to be with him forever. Permanent reminders of what he’s done.

“I only just got back,” says Shiro instead, gesturing at the dust. “I still need to clean up.”

“I’ll help,” Matt offers immediately, and lifts the plastic bag in his hand. “Also, I brought you food. Figured you probably haven’t restocked your fridge yet.”

Shiro glances with horror towards his kitchen. He’s a little afraid to find out what state said fridge is in, untouched for six months.

“I appreciate that,” he says faintly, and Matt laughs.

They eat, and then they get to work. With the blinds open and Matt for company, the apartment feels a lot brighter.

“So,” Matt says at one point. “Are you gonna be a hero now?”

“No. Not for a while, anyway,” Shiro amends quickly, as he sweeps the kitchen. “Maybe someday. But I need a break, first.”

Matt snorts. “You can say that again. I’m straight up retiring. Never much into the superhero thing anyway.”

“Why  _were_  you poking around there, anyway? You never did explain,” Shiro points out.

“Oh, my little sister and her friend have this dossier project.” Matt waves a hand and stands on tiptoe to dust a high shelf. “I thought I’d poke around a bit, see if I could find something interesting for them. I had no idea what was in that warehouse beforehand.”

Shiro stops sweeping. “You stumbled across… us… by accident.”

Matt smirks over his shoulder. “Yeah, my luck hasn’t gotten any better since graduation.”

Shiro shakes his head, but he smiles too. It almost feels unfamiliar–he certainly hasn’t had cause to smile in a while.

Hopefully, that will change soon. No–it will. He’ll go back to teaching, hang out with Matt and their friends, start doing the things he enjoys again. He’s not going to let what’s happened drag him down forever.

And mindset is the first step.

“Maybe your luck  _has_  changed,” he says after a moment. “After all, we’re here now, and The Emperor isn’t.”

Matt grins. “That’s the spirit.”

**Author's Note:**

> on tumblr [here!](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com/post/164621854789/hey-i-really-like-your-voltron-superhero-au-on)


End file.
